The Usurper Reports
by Betapike
Summary: After I turned off my smartphone for the night, I looked to my side to see the dragon hatchling curled up next to me. Before I fell asleep I took another look at my still slightly itchy hand where I had the white oval [the name of which I still couldn't remember] on my palm. "Well..." I said to myself. "This has been an interesting afternoon." tags; OC/SI.
1. The Normal World

**Blah blah blah No infringement intended, You all know who the ****Inheritance Cycle belongs to... now on to the story.**

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**Report 01: The normal world and the first inciting incident.**

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Alright, let's try writing this introduction Animorphs style.

My name is Alex.

I could be lying here, and I won't tell you my last name. Or where precisely I live. Unlike in Animorphs, this isn't for security reasons. All the dangerous stuff I'm facing is occurring in another universe, so your all safe... Unless of course said stuff ends up with the ability and willingness to travel through the multiverse, in which case I'm not putting you or myself in any additional danger by telling you about it.

Also if you're reading these reports then that means that you are either an inhabitant of my native dimension so you already know who I am. (because let's be honest, my departure from my version of Earth wasn't exactly subtle.) Or the dimension this report (or a copy of it) ended up in wasn't the one where I was abducted by the call. So it doesn't _really _matter who I am.

I'm not telling you who I am because ever it's not relevant. It doesn't matter if you like or hate me. It doesn't matter if I lived next door to you or on the other side of the world. It doesn't matter how you may be different from me, in any way, shape, or form. What matters here is that I have a story to tell that if it could happen to me… then it could have happened to anyone... and it involves dragons.

Now after reading that last line you either thought to yourself, _cool, another story with dragons in them. _Or you thought to yourself, _o god, another story with dragons in it._ Perfectly understandable, after all, it sometimes feels like dragons have been done by every major fantasy author and their mother. So while stories like The Hobbit and Dragonriders of Pern asked novel narrative questions in their time. No one feels the tension from stories that derive tension from if our heroes can defeat the dragon[s] anymore, and no one feels a sense of wonder from asking what it's like to be a dragonrider either.

Therefore, if you want to write a story about dragons, [or about anything really] you need to derive tension and/or wonder from narrative questions that haven't been explored much before. As it turns out I believe I've come across a few of these questions and one of them is this; What is it like to be a dragonrider... if you grew up in the modern world.

If that particular concept has already been explored then I certainly haven't seen it. If anyone who reads this has the ability to let me know if they're already stories like that, please do so I would love to learn about them until then let's start with my story.

It's hard to know where some stories really start. I can say with confidence that this is not one of those stories. In fact, so far this adventure roughly fits with the typical hero's journey.

The hero's journey usually starts with an ordinary world which the audience is most likely familiar with and the hero is definitely familiar with. The purpose of this place from a story perspective is to give a comfortable status quo to start from and to make the impact of entering the world of adventure have much more of an impact because let's face it; without the ordinary world, the world of adventure is just… a world.

So the day I ended up leaving my ordinary world began as it almost always does on a weekday, my smartphone started to ring and I picked it up without any conscious effort, The **6:35 AM **alarm was dismissed and I got out of bed with my phone and earbuds in my pocket.

Without thinking about anything else except getting over waking up, I walked out of my room, went to the kitchen, got the bacon from the fridge, and started to cook breakfast when I noticed that it had snowed last night.

Snow. For the first time in years, it had snowed in Portland Oregon. Then my mood soured as I thought about the extreme cold snap in the Midwest states causing trouble to the point of being potentially deadly to the people living there which in turn made me think about the mutant orangutan's tweet about how said cold snap proves that global warming isn't real and/or destructive, (excuse me, global waming) which then made me think on how nobody ever said that it would never snow anywhere ever again yet people still use that as an excuse, which then got me thinking about the general stupidity and greed that exist in the world and how…

"Alex?" My dad's voice called out from the living room where he preferred to sleep.

"Yes?" I called back.

"The twins don't have school today."

"_Dow!"_ I thought as I brought to myself back to the present. Realizing that I was halfway towards cutting opening a new package of bacon while the previous package I've been thrown out with the last of it's the bacon inside in the frying pan.

I shook my head in self-amusement. _"I managed to think of everything snow-related except the fact that snow means that there is no need to cook on weekday mornings."_

I stopped cutting up the new package and put it back in the fridge, then I tried to figure out what to do with the bacon already in the frying pan. I ended up deciding on putting it in a Tupperware container, sure it was going to eventually turn into another dish that I'd have to wash, _but _it was my fault it was needed in the first place.

As I walked back to my room to get some extra sleep I reminded myself why I stopped keeping up with world news. I was going to drive myself crazy[er] if I focused on the things I couldn't control.

After sleeping for an hour and a half, I decided to play some Starcraft 2 for a few games on my personal computer, re-watching the replays whenever I didn't know what I could've done better. Afterward, I looked up at the newest Ted Talks about science and engineering then I thought about what it would be like to live in a world where these things were commonplace, and next thing I knew it's noontime.

This was the time I usually took the family dog on a walk to a relatively close dog park, and this day was not an exception. Especially because the said dog loves the snow and it's fun watching him play in it.

So I got up and got dressed for the moderate cold and looked at my reflection in my bedroom mirror, looking back at me was a man in his early twenties with jeans, a hoodie, short dirty blonde hair, and dull green eyes. All and all somebody you would never remember unless you were making an effort to do so.

Satisfied I left my room to the front foyer, opened the glove compartment to get my hoodie-matching-gloves, and I made my announcement. "You want to go for a walk?" I asked to no one in particular, and the predictable results immediately followed.

Suddenly there were sounds of four-legged and very excited running from the other side of the house, getting louder and louder until right beside me was a hyper-energetic ball of fur waggling his entire butt, a habit that he picked up from his boxer side.

I got his leash and turned it to find that he was bowing in his usual manner, [I never found out where he got that habit.] After he was done I put the leash on him and off we went.

Looking back at that moment, I tend to think about Hammer from Fable 2 and how she reflected on how she couldn't remember if she said goodbye to her father the last time she left him. And the funny thing about goodbyes was you never knew if you would get another one.

But at that moment I was walking the dog to the park while enjoying the view of the suburban-esque neighborhood covered in the thin layer of snow

As I mentioned earlier the city I live in is Portland Oregon, if you're curious about whether or not what they say about this city being weird is true or not, I'll just say this; one at the store so I can go to as a sign saying keep Portland weird, kilt-wearing unicycle-riding bagpipe-playing Darth Vader is just a site I spent a few seconds being amused by before I continue my day, and I once saw a ninja riding a motorcycle with a big samurai sword on his back.

Okay, maybe the part about the big samurai sword might have been something I misremembered due to my dad joking about how this guy might have had pick-up lines involving swords.

So anyway, after me and the dog spent some time at the dog park where my canine companion decided then he was mostly interested in getting petted by the other dog owners rather than playing with the other dogs after he was done playing in the snow, we were heading home along the usual route as we usually did for just about any other day like this, not expecting anything taking place on our way back.

So you probably figured that this is the part where… it happened.

The thing that happened began when we were watching the vehicles go by, waiting for our turn to cross the street. The sign that something was amiss was that my canine companion, [I'm not telling you his name.] Began barking at one of the trucks about to pass us before it got the red light.

"_What is the truck full of skateboarders or something?" _I thought to myself as we moved across the street.

Then I heard it too, this sound that was both a deep rumbling and a high-pitched shriek coming from the completely normal looking commercial truck.

As I would later find out I always remember what happened next differently each time I think about it, apparently one of the drawbacks of this particular method of extra-dimensional travel is that it causes you to gain memories from other versions of yourself making the journey.

One of the few consistencies about all these versions of events is that I ended up in the pod that was being transported in the trunk, followed by a feeling of time becoming completely meaningless and that eternity was now all.

Ya, I know it sounds weird, but that's what comes to my mind when I think about what traveling there the void between universes is like.


	2. The New World

**Inheritance cycle still doesn't belong to me, no matter how good this ends up being. And yes, this chapter is longer than the first one.**

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**Report 02: The New World and the second inciting incident.**

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The first thing I remember after I lost the weird feelings about meaningless time and eternity, was that my mind was in shambles, it was like every thought took over a minute to ooze its way through my head and make itself known, all the while my head felt like it was going to burst from the inside out, like said thoughts had gained the size of slugs as well as their speed. I couldn't even massage my temples or groan in displeasure because my body wouldn't respond to my commands… and I feel like I shouldn't go into any more details.

I swear if I have to go through the multiverse again I'm opting for losing my pinky finger to do it, It'll probably be less painful and the added benefits of having much more control over where I end up, plus the added ability to pull stuff from another universe on a whim would be... extremely preferable to what I was going through then.

Note: It has occurred to me that if other people have read these reports before you then they may have challenged you to have a drinking game to take a sip every time I reference something from our world. A trope, a piece of media or anything like that.

My advice to you is **DON'T!**.

Anyway, after that nasty case of experiencing a 'And I must scream' scenario the atrocious pain and paralyzation started to subside and I started to regain control of myself, and with my still somewhat sluggish mind I began the slow process of figuring where I was.

The first thing I noticed was the feeling that I was lying on a mattress that was more firm than the one I had at home, but I could get used to it if I had to. Next, I slowly opened my eyes only to see a white blur all around, then after a few painfully long minutes my vision started to clear up and I saw that there was a grayish ceiling above me, then my depth perception returned and I realized it was in arm's reach.

With something resembling strength returning to my body I was able to turn my head to my left side to see a wall just as close to me as the ceiling. For a split second, I was in a panic thinking I was trapped in a small metal box, but then I turned to my right and I saw a bigger room... well the term room might be a bit generous, it was more like a narrow hallway.

But I still breathed a sigh of relief, _so I'm just in a compartment _I thought to myself. Next, I focused on the other side I saw that there were three empty sleeping compartments built into the wall, seeing how the leftmost one looked like it was leveled with me I made a guess that there were two more compartments behind my head for a total of six.

While I was still curious about the rest of my surroundings, for example, I heard a slight hissing sound from a distance, like a pressurized helmet being taken on or off in the movies and video games, but I was tired, just completely burned out like I just completed the whole Portland bridge pedal with a bag of potatoes on my back. So I decided to get as comfortable as I could to get some sleep, somehow managing to take off my gloves and hoodie in that time, it still felt exceptionally odd be resting while wearing jeans but I wasn't willing to do anything about that. But before I could sleep there some nagging thoughts in my head keeping me from doing that.

_But what if something is going wrong right around the corner! _The more vigilant side of myself thought to myself.

_Then there isn't much I can do about it now… not when I'm barely conscious. I can't fight off or run from a predator for example, so I'm better off not making any sudden moves and playing dead._ I wasn't entirely sure about the playing part but you get the idea.

_But what if this place has a nuclear reactor that's about to go critical unless you find a computer terminal and fix it._

_There would probably be some sort of alarm going off at that were the case-_

_You're just making up excuses to be lazy like you usually do!_

I paused for a moment, and then after half a second of silence, I formulated my response in the most respectful, elegant and with the biggest and most obscure words that I could conceive of.

_Shut up and let me sleep._

That apparently did it and I was free to rest while waiting for myself to fall unconscious I began to think back on the events that brought me here, the dog barking at the normal-looking commercial truck, the chaos that followed [which again, I would later find out my memory about it would change every time I thought about it.] And the consequences that would likely come of it for those I left behind.

_I hope the dog found his way home… and that the family isn't tearing itself apart with worry and grief._ I thought solemnly to myself as I started to drift to sleep.

But before I could get that much-needed rest an utterly horrid beeping sound assaulted my ears that sounded like it was coming from right behind my head causing my lingering headache to crawl its way back to prominence. Then an automated voice that sounded suspiciously like the female A.I. from Doom 2016 made an announcement.

"**Dimensional phasing completed, please confirm crew status." **

At first, I tried to ignore it, hands pushing against my ears in a desire for silence, but between the continuous pinging, repeating voice, and the cautious voice in my head eventually overcoming my inner sloth.

"**Dimensional phasing completed, please confirm crew status." **

_Shit,_ I grumbled in utter contempt for all sounds, physical afflictions, and whoever or whatever was responsible for me ending up here in the first place. Then with all the speed and grace that would make a drunk zombie feel amazing about itself, I finally got up to investigate the beeping noise.

"**Dimensional phasing completed, please confirm crew status."**

"GRRAAAAAA!" I hoarsely shouted as my shambling led me to a terminal that was located on the wall pretty much within two arms reach of where I was resting, but in my current state, it felt like I just ran so much that my legs were going to collapse under my own weight if I took another step. I did my best to ignore the pain and proceed to learn what all the fuss was about.

There was a big flashing message on the wall terminal saying [swipe here for confirmation] in a bar that had arrows pointing thought the right of it, and seeing how I couldn't find any mouse or keyboard I concluded that I was dealing with a touchscreen, so I swiped right on the bar and immediately the beeping stopped and I also found myself looking at the main menu.

_**Compartment 1: Status: In Use.**_

_**Compartment 2: Status: No Occupant.**_

_**Compartment 3: Status: No Occupant.**_

_**Compartment 4: Status: No Occupant.**_

_**Compartment 5: Status: No Occupant.**_

_**Compartment 6: Status: No Occupant.**_

_**Aerial drones ready for deployment.**_

_**Exploration drones ready for deployment.**_

_**Sentry drones ready for deployment.**_

_**First landing protocols: Initiated.**_

_Ok…_ I thought to myself in an uncertain voice, I couldn't remember how long I just stood there not doing or thinking about anything, and I never ever bothered to check how long I took. But I eventually noticed that the word 'Initiated' was highlighted like none of the other words, so I pressed my finger on it and I saw the screen changed to a scene of a dark pine needle forest lit only by the stars and an orange moon in from the dark and clear sky with the words _**Exp Drone 1**_ in the bottom left corner of the screen._ So I'm currently looking through the eyes of a drone, and... _ _wait a minute, doesn't the moon only become orange in the fall? _I thought to myself in confusion until I remembered the announcers… um, announcement.

'Dimensional phasing completed' after I _really _paid attention to that line I came to the conclusion that it would have been obvious if I wasn't having to think with a real foggy mind.

_So I traveled to some alternate dimension where it's now autumn instead of winter… ok..._

At the time I had really hoped I had lost my ability to feel surprised to the journey to wherever I was, but it would later seem that I was just overwhelmed by the number of questions I had.

Then, on the screen, I saw the words _**Autopilot Resumed**_ and the image started to move as the drone began to sweep the area around it in what looked like a complete 360-degree turn, allowing me to see what I would come to call the pod. On the outside, it looked just like it had when I first saw it, just a large, green, rectangular, inconspicuous cargo container that you would never think about again if you even looked at it in the first place. Except for the fact that it was in the middle of the forest and the area right around it was burned and still giving off the occasional wisp of smoke, and at the now-closed door there were now tracks that led to the bottom of the camera, right were the drone now resided and recorded everything it saw.

_Huh… so this thing is like the Tardis, a time/dimension traveling machine designed to hide in plain sight?... alright… who made this thing, was it created by some hyper-advanced civilization or did some team of scientists on Earth figure out how to breach the veil between realities?... and how hard __IS__ it to have interdimensional travel anyway?_ I decided to check if there were any logs that could tell me about this thing's origins, maybe a pre-recorded message for the crew, or… um… something else I guess.

But after a few minutes of searching the pod's databanks, I found nothing, except for what was looking to be a complete copy of all humanity's knowledge. Centuries of scientific knowledge, millennia of history and culture from across the world apparently copied right from the moment that the pod left for wherever it would end up.

_...Wow... that's just, wow._ After I managed to process that fact I started to wonder what it meant to the origin of this thing._ So this pod made by someone from Earth? It wouldn't be likely for it to have been made by someone else or there would be more information on it. But why would you download a copy of the internet? Was this meant to be some sort of ark? It didn't nearly have enough room for people for that. Is it some sort of exploration vessel? That did seem like a better explanation for what I've seen so far, but that just brings up more questions, was it a new creation being moved to some testing facility? Or were devices like it being used for a while now like in Stargate? It was definitely designed to be transported in plain sight by looking like a commercial truck, so… goddammit._ I felt the pain I felt earlier creeping back into my head as I started thinking too hard, so I sat down on the floor while I waited for the pain to go away, after about a minute of silence both inside my head and around me the reemerging headache vanished and I dared to think one more thought about my particular situation and the thing that brought me here.

_What the hell was happening in the dark corners of the world I left behind?_ Asking a question that I felt wouldn't be getting an answer to any time soon.

My musings stopped when the still annoying if no longer intolerable beeping noise returned originating from the computer screen, I sighed in resignation and pushed myself up to inspect the screen and see what the rover was fussing about, and what I saw would change my life forever, and would more immediately completely recontextualized this entire adventure.

Without anyone giving it any commands the drone resumed its surveying of the immediate area, it started not by circling and recording the pod for what I guessed was for the purpose of seeing if the structure had sustained damage from wherever/whatever it had traveled through to get to were it, and by extension, I, was now. But thankfully there wasn't any damage, although even if there was I don't think that would be what I would be at all that interested in for the moment, and it wasn't what the drone sent an alert about either.

Apparently, the drone was going about its pre-programmed route when it came across… it, after using a few onboard instruments to analyze its quarry it sent me the following messages.

_**Anomaly detected. No hazardous signatures detected. Object deemed safe for transportation and study. Permission to retrieve? Yes/No**_

Usually, I would've at least given myself the chance to rest before I bought any anomalies on board even if they were 'deemed safe for transportation and study'. But seeing what the anomaly in question looked like I knew that if I left it outside I would be up all night wondering if it was what I thought it was and what it was if it wasn't what I thought. Pretty counterproductive to getting much-needed sleep, so I suspended that particular cautionary voice in my heard and after a minute of inwards debate, I pushed the yes button and witnessed the robot pick up the 'anomaly'.

_**Affirmative. Returning to deliver the anomaly.**_

Before we go any further in the report let me tell you something about myself, back home I was well noted for having a good memory for certain kinds of things, for example, when I was… I dunno 7, 8? My family watched Stargate SG1 together a tradition that we discontinued after we watched the end of season 10 and the Ark of Truth, afterward nobody watched the series again for a little over a decade. Then one day, when a random episode aired on some random channel my parents were watching they were surprised when I was casually able to say exactly what some of the lines the characters were going to say next, apparently, they like most people would have (and did) forget almost everything about that episode after over a decade.

Just in case anyone was wondering the episode in question was the one where Mini Carter (The ability to remember names wasn't included among those certain kinds of things.) and the tiny living lights showed up and they kept saying they were on a moon, NOT a planet, and it was the lines involving exposition to Mini Carter, exposition about the tiny living lights, and the fact that they were on a moon NOT a planet were the ones I remembered most clearly. It was this particular kind of memory that let me remember the 'anomaly' despite the fact that it had been years since I read _those_ books, so I was fairly confident that I knew what it was, but at the same time, I didn't feel like saying or even thinking it out loud what I thought it was at the time because… well…I didn't want to sound like an idiot to myself if it turned out I was wrong.

Anyway, after the drone picked up the 'anomaly' it started to move to one end of the rectangular cube that made up the pod that I resided in, _The drone is bringing it here!_ I thought to myself as my heart began beating at a frantic pace despite the fact that the message had stated that the thing was safe, _Also, how exactly is it going to get it in here?_ _And how did the drone get out of the pod in the first... place...?_

A mild smacking sound came from my forehead as I internally berated myself for not realizing all the wonderfully important questions I should've sought answers to as I learned I was inside of a metal box and concluded then I was in another universe, so I could leave in a hurry in case something went wrong! _Goddamit I'm lost without the slightest clue how to get back or how to make sure I am found by who and/or what I want to be found by as opposed to say, an army of eldritch abominations that could be lurking in the veil between realities and might be able to show up at any time! All the while I had no idea if there were any mundane dangers nearby and or coming, AND I DIDN'T THINK ABOUT FINDING THE EXIT!_

God, I felt like such a moron at that moment, until I remembered that I was in no state to get out with any form of hast due to my barely functional mind and body, and I had so many other things worth thinking about by the time I had gotten over those deficiencies that I could reasonably believe most people would have made the same mistake.

_I suppose I can cut myself a little slack for this instance, still, I should do better in the future. Now that that's out of the way how is that 'anomaly' going to be delivered into the pod?_ I thought as I pulled my eyes from the screen.

I gave the room my first proper look at the inside of the pod, and it was… pretty dull to be completely honest. The interior was gray along the entirety of the rectangular hall, floor, roof, and walls, the only other things worth mentioning besides that were the six sleeping compartments and the outlines of what to me looked like (and I would soon find out for sure were.) drawers and cabinets that might contain all the supplies that the crew might have needed.

After finishing the overall inspection I focus on the ends of the pod, after seeing both ends had doors but with no discernable characteristics on either one I decided to start with the closest to me and I saw a door that was only several feet away, so I decided to check there first hoping to find the way in and out of the pod and to confirm if I was where I thought I was and if the 'stone' was what I believed it was.

After a small groan l moved away from the screen and the sleeping compartments right behind it and I made my way to the closest door with a diminished but still noticeable shamble from earlier in my movement towards the door, when I finally made it to the door I reached out and gripped the handle and with a slight huff I pulled the door open looking forward to not having to go all the way back to where I started and then more than double the distance to the other side of the pod... and it was a bathroom, it reminded me of the ones on airplanes back home except for the fact it had a shower. Then the computer voice made another announcement.

"**The anomaly has been delivered to containment and is waiting for study, please report to containment at the earliest convenience."**

Air rushed in through my nose while my right hand's grip tightened on the handle, and my left hand clenched into a rising fist that I could have sworn could've beat Saitama in a punching match. "Goddammit…" I venomously muttered to myself, closing the door with far more control then I felt like committing to it, and I began to move towards the other side of the pod despite my body's protest. _I've gotten this far,_ I thought to myself. _I might as well be done with this._

When I made it to the other side I opened the door to find one more door about 10 feet in front of me, judging from the world Airlock right above it this was the last door separating me from the world right outside. On the right side of the room, there were six hazmat suits attached to the wall prepared to protect their wearers from any conventionally hazardous environments the pod arrived in, attached to the left corner just in front of the last door was a modestly sized laboratory-grade glove box, you know the glass containers with the rubber gloves built into the thing in for safety manipulating whatever is inside of it while keeping it contained? I'm not talking about a glove dispenser here. (Although there really should be cooler and more distinguishable names for it.)

There were also lockers on the left side of the room not taken up by the glove box, but I didn't learn what was in them until later so they won't matter for the rest of this report, instead, we'll focus on what was in the glove box.

Looking inside saw the 'anomaly' looking just like it had when I was seeing it from the perspective of the drone, but seeing it with my own eyes somehow made it seemed more beautiful and frightening and I found myself needing to make sure it was real, so I opened the metal hatches keeping me from using the rubber gloves and proceeded to pick it up. The roughly foot-long oval weighed about 7 to 9 pounds, a noticeable burden but pretty lightweight when you looked at its jewel-like surface and remembered how heavy those things and by extension, it was logically supposed to be.

While the gloves limited my sense of touch I could tell that it was pretty cool for being in the center of what looked like a newly made ground zero no more than two minutes ago, while I felt almost no friction when my fingers streaked across it. The last notable features it possessed were its colors, the fancier part was a spider-web pattern of thin white veins encompassing it, while the rest of the 'stone' was colored a very deep and very dark blue.

_Alright, it definitely looks and feels like what I think it is but is there any other way to be sure?_ I thought as looked for another way to be sure, and I did, just to the left side of the glass was a button that had x-ray written on it, I pulled my hands out of the gloves, closed the hatches to the gloves, took a deep breath, and pushed the button.

When I looked back inside the glove box I saw the form of a western dragon sleeping the fetal position inside. Now while all I really knew for sure was that it was a dragon egg so I could be in a completely different world from that of the inheritance cycle with the only similarity being that _One_ of the dragon eggs looks the same. I still couldn't shake the feeling that that's where I was and not only did I have a dragon egg in my interdimensional traveling pod, but that it was Saphira's egg.

_I guess I'm at the point where I'm able to forgive myself for making a mistake like that if it turns out to be one. So… I have Saphira's egg…. So where is Eragon?_ I thought as I turned off the X-ray and thought of how to get an answer.


	3. And the second inciting incident

**Report 03:... And the second inciting incident.**

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_So… I have Saphira's egg…. So where is Eragon?_ I thought as I turned off the X-ray and thought of how to get an answer.

A fine question, I didn't get any reports about someone walking around the landing site and knowing Eragon, I didn't think he would've run away even from something like the pod appearing right in from of him, just like he didn't just leave Saphira's egg where he found it despite him growing up hearing stories that if you took nothing else from, it was that you should be very careful when dealing with magic and those who used it, if you had to deal with them at all.

_I'll check the drone feed, maybe he's just hiding in the shrubs while aiming with that homemade bow of his that would break once he gained his elf powers from that once-a-century blood oath ceremony._ I turned from the glove box to find a terminal screen located on the wall right next to the doorway leading back to the main… room, hall? Whatever, I headed to it accessed the main menu to find out what the situation was with Exp drone 1.

But it turned out I needed to clear the glove box of the egg before I could do that. I can't say for sure why, there was no information about it, all I could do was make in the system happy and guess what the purpose was. (maybe to keep the glove box ready to analyze something new in a hurry?)

Anyway, I went back to the glove box and went looking for a way to get the egg out, turned out there were doors on the sides of the box with the one on the right leading outside.

_Nice, a way to get interesting stuff inside without opening the whole airlock._

Then there was a door on the left side of the box which looks like it could and would be used to take out anything that was in the glove box, I soon found a small lever on the outside and when I pulled it the small door opened with a small hiss of air and I took a deep breath before I removed the egg.

I stopped for a moment to allow myself to be amazed by the fact that I was holding something which had always been fiction to me and in a moment of curiosity I held the egg in one hand and in the other I gently tapped the egg with my knuckles in order to hear the nice ringing sound that apparently creates. Can't say I was disappointed, the closest thing I could compare it to was the sound the Ohmu shell from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind made when Nausicaä taped it with her dagger, although it was somewhat quieter.

I know, it's generally considered exceptionally rude to knock where an infant was sleeping, but the infant in question never seemed to be bothered by even having a hammer banging down on her shell that was struck with the intention of breaking it. In fact, she even made the offender her rider and they had a pretty nice relationship while kicking ass and taking names for the rest of their biologically immortal lives.

_Moral of the story: if you find a strange and potentially dangerous artifact, take it home, try to smash it with a hammer, and become best friends with the dragon that was inside the artifact the whole time._

Chuckling from those mental images I placed the egg on the beach right next to the box and headed back to the terminal screen…

*Squeak*

And I abruptly stopped, not moving a muscle while listening for the slightest noise. After a moment of being completely still, I turned around too faced the source of that disturbance, the egg on the beach right where I left it.

_Could it be… no, it's probably nothing, it was said the egg occasionally squeaked during its travels and it never hatched for anyone…_

_Yep, said by the woman who just explained why it was the reason she didn't think anything of the last egg making those squeaking noises before it hatched for her… come on we're smarter than this._ I chided myself.

I forced those thoughts out of my head and headed to the terminal, returning to the task of finding Eragon and making sure he got the egg that was meant for him.

When I returned to the terminal I found that the drone had apparently finished surveying the area around the pod before continuing to explore the surrounding forest via night vision cameras.

After some snooping around I discovered how to rewind the camera feed and see if the drone had seen anyone while exploring, even if the chances were it would have sent out a big loud message to the pod if it did. Seeing as how it clearly thought that the shiny blue 'stone' was worth alerting any and all crew to its existence, it would most likely be programmed to treat the discovery of any people and/or intelligent life forms it came across to be most certainly worth noting about if it was built by someone from my world which all evidence available suggested it was.

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure how the drone's programming allowed it to recognize that the shiny blue 'stone' wasn't normal and potentially worth its own time and that of the crew due to what little I know about programming.

Regardless after going through the recordings of the drone's journey, I found that it had gone around in circles around the perimeter several times each getting more distances from the pod before it headed out in a seemingly random direction, and it had found absolutely no one in the surrounding foliage.

_Huh… doesn't look like he is around after all, I wonder why that is... Oh God, I hope I didn't squish him coming here! What would-_

**"Signs of intelligent life detected."**

Just before I started to panic I heard that message go off and the video recording transformed into the live feed showing that the drone had reached the top of a small mound, giving it a better vantage point of the surrounding area which let it find a collection of small lights in the distance, after the drone magnified its vision to get a better look it found that the lights were fires and candles in the windows with the occasional lanterns in the streets being put out for the night, all occurring in a village that was at most a three-hour walk away.

_Ok, I know for a fact that Eragon was hunting in the mountains of the spire... spine? (Both make logical sense as the name of a mountain range) three days away from... Carvenhall wasn't it? and NOT three hours away like where I am now. So what happened?_

A moment later I remembered how in the books it was mentioned how weird it was, to begin with, that Saphira's egg appeared before Eragon and not in front of Brom like… Ummm… the ambassador intended it to. Numerous explanations were given all throughout the series with the final one being given in the last book, explaining that if the whole thing went. Just. As. Planned. When Eragon, Saphira and… Golden-master-dragon-as-heart entered the vault of souls via the Rock of... something.

Now you're all probably wondering. 'Wait doesn't he have access to all of modern Earth's knowledge in the back of the pod? Why doesn't he just look any of the names he can't remember?'

Well, the reason for that is that while I may end up revealing that I'm not from this world, I'm not planning on revealing what I already know about it to anyone who's from here, for multiple reasons, so I decided it's best not to get into the habit of looking anything up, truth be told I probably should get around to deleting that particular knowledge as soon as I can.

Also, I find it funny how I can remember almost everything of note but almost all of the names of everyone and everything, and I figured if I found it funny someone else might get a laugh out of it too. Honestly, that banishing of names thing that happened to the traitor dragons would probably not work on me due to how bad I am at remembering names too begin with.

So like I was saying, it was stated multiple times that it was weird the egg wasn't teleported to Brom like it was supposed to and ended up in front of Eragon. And multiple theories for why that happened were given multiple times throughout the series. Until_ they_ were revealed to behind it.

Here was my idea; what if the egg appearing right next to the pod _was_ just an honest accident this time around, while _they_ were transporting the egg to Eragon just like they were in the books, (and I guess the movies) but then the pod came in through the veil between realities and the egg got trapped in whatever means of transportation the pod used and so reappeared next to the pod instead of Eragon.

_Well, that's going to make things a little awkward getting the egg back where it belongs, still at less he most likely caught the deer that had the noticeable limp that made Eragon amazed that a wolf or bear didn't catch her for so long. Also, no angry butcher seeing the egg and rating out Eragon to the razac which in turn means no dead uncle tragedy, better yet that means no dead uncle cliche._

_Hahaha… I'm such a terrible person._

It might have been a small leap of logic, one that required me to assume a few things, like the method of transportation, is similar enough for that to happen. But I couldn't think of any other answers unless _they_ intentionally sent the egg to the pod. I didn't think it was very likely seeing as how I couldn't see _them_ taking a risk like that.

_Although… I do recall them saying they weren't sure the egg would hatch for Eragon in the first place. So…_

_Oh, come on, taking a chance with the boy who is the son of a former Dragon Rider is one thing. But putting the egg in the care of someone that as far as they could tell just popped out of nowhere is something else entirely. Do they even know what the pod is and that there is a human side of it? And even if they knew that how would they figure the guy inside the pod would have the best chance of becoming not only the chosen rider of the hatchling inside, not only ending up being someone who could do what the whole dragon Rider order plus their allies couldn't do. But also not end up being as bad or worse than the villain that brought them down._

_And how did they know that Eragon would succeed at all of that?_

Damn, I'm good at asking armor-piercing questions when I want to be.

_No, this was an accident that needs to be corrected as soon as possible so the egg can hatch for the one it is supposed to._

_Since when was I the kind of person who did something because destiny said so?_

_Since the destiny in question offered a solution that's certain to work. Besides, just think about the levels of imposter syndrome I would experience if I became her rider? How would I be able to look at Brom in the eye knowing I had stolen his son's immortality, dragon, and destiny for myself, even if it was likely he and everyone else would never find out about it?_

_There is no certainty in life, and it wouldn't be stealing if she chose me for her rider._

_Just...No!_ I thought to myself. _I'm going to make sure the egg ends up in Eragon's possession like it was supposed to,_ putting my foot down and focusing on how I was going to do that.

First, I needed confirmation from the first exploration drone, so I returned to the live feed to find that it was apparently waiting for someone to end up -**Assuming Direct Control!-**. I did so in order to scan the area around the drone one more time. I saw the village just as I last saw it, except for the noticeably fewer lights on the account of everyone going to bed. Next, I directed the camera to make a 360-degree turn after I fingered out the controls, and what do you know, the village (and by extension I) was in a valley surrounded by mountains with snow-white peaks, seeing them made me think of the teeth on a giant jaw, but that was just me being weird.

_Ok, so it's a safe bet I'm in... the valley Eragon grew up in, but there were two villages in it weren't there? How do I find out whether this is his home and not the other town?_

It was then that I remembered the list of drones from earlier, namely the aerial drones and I wondered if I could use those for getting a closer look at the town without drawing the locals attention to the fact there were now things beyond their comprehension just outside the confines of their familiar world.

I was just about to look into what exactly I had available in terms of drones in order to learn more about the world without alerting anyone to my presence but… I didn't get the chance that night.

*Bang* I heard from behind me.

I turned around to see that the egg had fallen from the bench and it begins to wobble towards me for a moment before stopping, with one final squeak [After rewatching the security cameras I found that the egg was making a lot of noise that I was ignoring before it dropped to the floor.] It began to crack, first, it was just a small one on the edge, then another, then another, until all the cracks converged at the top with a final crack a loose piece began to wobble and then it popped out, revealing the dragon hatchling that had been sleeping for over a century waiting for someone worthy of becoming its rider to approach it.

And after it finished climbing out of its shell, it looked at me with a spark in its eyes and released a delighted squeak.

I slid down the wall slowly while keeping my eyes locked on to the hatchling's bright-eye gaze until I could take it no more and planted my face inside my hands.

_God damn it..._


	4. Skipping Ahead

**I Still don't own The inheritance cycle, it still belongs to Christopher Paolini.**

* * *

**Report 04: Symbiote Outtake: Skipping Ahead.**

* * *

Now unless you skipped the first three reports for some reason and are just now starting on this one, first of all, you should read the first three reports, secondly, you're probably wondering to yourself something like _'alright why is this Alex guy sitting down on the floor when he realizes that a dragon hatched for him when he's in a world where having that happen to you means you get biological immortality, a literal best friend forever who is a freaking dragon, reality-warping powers limited only by your stamina, knowledge, and creativity, and everything else associated with being a dragon rider in this world?_

_Sure the books he read showed the dragon had someone else she could've bonded with if her egg stayed close to him for a few weeks, but come on, there were a few million potential riders that she was never introduced to. So why is he being all fussy about the egg hatching for him instead of the protagonist in the books? After all, nobody exists on purpose, nobody really belongs anywhere, and everyone's going to die._

(I got the number of a few million from the fact that the empire mobilized 100,000 men at the Battle of the Burning Plains and I guessed there were about 200,000 to 300,000 more across the empire, that plus the soldiers from the free human nation and the fact that typically a nation can only field about 10% of its population to the army without beginning to experience some problems, and there was nothing in the aftermath suggests that neither the empire or the other nation was struggling due to the war effort. Well, nothing that I remember anyway.)

Well to explain that I need to tell you a little bit about me first, one of those things being that my mind can wander off into some pretty weird places, so don't get too put off by this little story I'm going to tell for this report and the next until I get a chance to explain why it matters. Deal?

_*Makes the assumption that you said deal.*_

All right, so I once had this idea for an inheritance cycle fanfiction called Symbiote. I ended up not writing it due to my laziness and… complications which I'll talk about in… let's say four or five reports later, but it went something like this.

* * *

**Symbiote: Skipping Ahead.**

The story is that I myself, (as in the real me) wake up one day to find myself as some sort of finger size robot. I never could decide exactly how I ended up like that, and I never planned on having it be important unless I got bored with the story yet still felt like writing it. The important thing was that I found myself in a finger size body in the middle of a then unfamiliar forest with no idea how I got there, and worse, after getting over the shock of the new body I could somehow tell I was low on energy, and I would die if I didn't find the needed source. Somehow understanding that I needed to explore in order to find my salvation I skittered across the forest floor hoping to find what I was looking for.

I was almost gone for good when I came across a man who was lying on the ground, I wasn't able to get a good look at him because he was curled up in a ball and had his face buried in his hands, all I was able to tell was that he was wearing expensive-looking clothes, he had brown hair, and he was letting out an occasional sob while lying on the ground, the only other thing worth noting was that the grass/moss around him had been flattened as if something huge had recently been on the ground around him.

Brace yourself, dear reader, the plot twist of the century is about to come bursting onto the scene in a minute.

So while watching this weeping individual a collection of visions on how to save myself came to my mind, apparently I was some kind of parasite that needed to enter through the ear of something like a human, almost like a Yeerk and take over the body to sustain myself. It was nothing that would threaten the life of the host, but it was guaranteed to be unpleasant to have something turn up uninvited inside your own head. I knew I wouldn't like it one bit if it was me.

After a moment of thinking about it, I felt I would soon shut down through energy lost, so I made my decision.

_It's either this or death for me… well… easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, let's do this._

With less than two minutes left I begin to crawl towards the living heap of distraught with as much stealth and speed as I could manage, I went unnoticed till I was no more than two feet away. Then he shifted, more than he had been doing since I saw him. He began to turn towards me, and so without thinking, I leaped. A moment later my several pairs of legs made contact with the man's head, automatically stunning him. With him unable to offer resistance I crawled to his pointed ear, (Pointed? No focus now find out later!) Then I was right above his ear, I instinctively (for lack of a better term) stuck my head inside.

After that, my head alongside my consciousness detached from the rest of the crawler body and I began to ooze my way inside the brain of my host. Within a minute I was able to see through his eyes, hear through his ears, and I heard his panicked thoughts as if they were my own.

_"What is happening?! What are you?!" _He thought as he tried to fight me from inside his head.

_"Apologies for any and all inconveniences caused by my intrusion,_ I 'told' him in the most diplomatic manner I could think of while holding back his mental assaults._ "but I need a place to stay for now and you were the only one available,"_ I said as I used his hand to pick up the crawler body and put it in the first pocket I found. _"As for what I am… well…"_

Before I began explaining four things happen at once.

(1) I started to get flashes of his memories, most of which were of him riding a blue Dragon.

(2) I felt the mental assaults double in strength.

(3) With his ears, I heard giant flapping noises getting closer with each beat.

(4) I heard a new voice inside 'our' head that screamed in abject terror. _"Eragon!"_

_Oh shit._ I thought as Saphira landed right beside us. Returning to Eragon after one of the few times she left his side while he was recovering from the rejection of his romantic advances from the Bastila and Eowyn hybrid that everyone keeps thinking is a Leia and Arwen hybrid for some reason… Aray? Ayra? Arya? Yes, I think that last one is right.

(In case you were wondering, while I'm allowing myself to look up other works of media when trying to recall something, hence the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings names appearing perfectly, I'm keeping myself from reading the Inheritance Cycle to remember anything. I'm doing this because of… well… I'm not sure I can put my reasons into words. Anyhow let's continue.)

So what followed afterward was… an extremely tense conversion to put it mildly. But after the situation calmed down enough I introduced myself to Eragon and Saphira and they introduced themselves to me, I already knew who they were because I read the books but they didn't need to know that.

Eventually, the three of us were able to come to an agreement we could all tolerate, I was allowed to stay in Eragon's head and therefore given what I needed to survive provided I followed a few ground rules and helped them with their quest to defeat the big bad Dragon Rider.

Now there's a lot of things that happened between then and the Burning Plains, but if I'm getting my point across in a few reasonably sized reports I need to skip to then.

* * *

Now we get to the part where our group of four (me, Eragon, Saphira, and token-dwarf… Orik?) Finally saw the big encampment of rebels and the even bigger encampment of imperials on the Burning Plains.

_"We should make sure they know we're coming, we don't want to cause a panic and get shot by our own troops,"_ I thought directly to Eragon and throw the dragon and rider bond indirectly to Saphira as well.

[To whomever it may concern; if you come across these reports and see any avenue of contacting me, could you tell me how in-character you think everyone is.]

"_We could very well handle any sticks thrown at us by any panicked men._ Saphira thought with a hit of indignity.

"_And between your flying skills and Eragon's magic I wouldn't dream of suggesting otherwise, but it would be rather awkward for the shooters if they shot at the last hope for a free _[continent name here]_ Not to mention the punishments they would be given so the commanders can save face, and besides, the troops could use morale and I'm sure you would love the chance to show off Saphira."_

A moment of silence passed before the mental equivalent of a huff before she conceding my point and proceeded to do aerial acrobatics for long enough for someone to tell the archers that we were friendlies, with Eragon amused from our silent conversation and Orik barely keeping himself from being sick.

In case you didn't pick up on that earlier bit, Saphira didn't like me due to my status as being another one of those things that target her rider the _very_ moment she isn't around to keep him safe. You know in book three were she lists off the kinds of trouble he attracts when she's not around? So yeah it didn't look like she and I were about to become the best of friends, despite me using my [in the universe] flawless memory to replicate Arya's introduction speech to her after she woke up and spoke to her for the first time.

I was at peace with this fact, after all, there certainly are worse reasons to hate someone and Eragon was often able to serve at the mediator between us.

Anyway, after some impressive aerial acrobatics, all four of us landed in the rebel camp and we were promptly lead to the lady in charge… I'll just call her Nas.

So we went to Nas's tent to see her and Arya studying a map, the site of the latter causing butterflies to appear and start training for the Olympics in Eragon's stomach.

Afterward, everything pretty much went the same way it did in the books; stories were exchanged, the current situation was explained, the violet-eyed girl came in revealing herself as the baby Eragon 'Blessed' one moment kissing him on the forehead and saying she forgave him and ask how she could not, and in the next moment telling him how the 'Blessing' forced her to feel the pain of everyone around her and with bitterness and a hint of mocking edge in her voice, something I always found contradicting when reading the book.

(In case you were wondering, yes I think she would have been able to discover my existence with her unique abilities unless something was actively keeping her from finding out about me… or she did notice me and was just waiting for Eragon to get out of earshot before she told anyone, I just don't care to make that a part of this outtake.)

Eragon made his offer to fix it as best he could, then we went to see King Face-Ass turn.

After arriving at the king's tent we were forced to exchange pleasantries with a bunch of bluebloods with the only reason I was able to tolerate it was because the three of us were going to get at least a year's worth of free meals with all the promises being made to us… well, to Eragon specifically.

After we escaped the tent of doom Eragon asked Nas if she was ready to discuss the battle to come.

"How do _you _think you can best serve me Eragon? You know your own abilities far better than I do." Nas asked and even the hybrid watched him/us, her own curiosity overcoming any awkwardness she still felt.

Now comes the part where the story actually starts to change due to my presence.

"_Do you wish to take over and tell them yourself Alex?"_ he asked me. _"It is thanks to you we have knowledge of what is to come and how to make use of it."_

"_Nah I don't need any ego-boosting, besides they'd probably notice if you suddenly became someone else right in front of them, thanks for asking me though,"_ I replied.

"_Very well."_ Eragon thought as he returned his attention to Nas, took a deep breath, and began to talk about what I had subtly led him to find out.

"Before I tell you about my plans I must tell you about something we discovered during our journey here…" after looking around and finding that no one was actively listening and then putting up some wards to ensure privacy Eragon told them the news. One of the two eggs had hatched and the dragon and its rider were being held in reserve for this battle.

Shock appeared on the faces of the two women at that declaration. "You are sure of this information?" Nas asked.

"I did everything I could to be sure."

Nas closed her eyes and took a deep breath before responding. "Very well, do you have any plans to deal with this rider?" she asked hopefully.

"Yes we do, we may even be able to turn their presence into an opportunity."

"Oh?" Nas noted.

It was here that Saphira took over to draw attention away from the fact that Eragon was talking about me._ "Based on the observation that the pair would have been secretly held in reserve if we hadn't discovered them it would be a simple conclusion to draw that they would have waited until after I and Eragon were exhausted from fighting the Empire's soldiers so they could capture or kill us at their leisure."_

_"Seeing as most of the soldiers were conscripted they would most likely lose their will to fight if they are sufficiently frightened, now, if we tell the soldiers of their Kings apparent plan to spend their lives merely to exhaust us the bulk of them would certainly be ready to give up on fighting for him."_

It was at this point that Eragon chimed in. "Which will leave only the men willing to fight for their homes and families who have been told that if we march undisputed though the empire then such things will be lost… in order to convince those men to stand down, we have planned to challenge the new dragon and rider to a duel to determine the outcome of this battle."

"The purpose of this will be two-fold, first it will ensure that should the new Rider prove to be too powerful for us to overcome then we'll know to retreat until we become more powerful, for if we can't defeat them, there's no reason to hope for victory against their master. The other reason for doing this is if the soldiers see that we are willing to place effort into ensuring they have a chance to return home then whatever doubts they had about the [rebel faction name here]'s intentions, no significant number of them should still be willing to fight for the mad king, and some of them might even be willing to join us."

"And if the new rider and dragon aren't willing to accept our challenge… well, they will leave the soldiers knowing that their only purpose in this battle is to die in order to tire the enemy dragon rider and suffering the morale problems that would come with it. So to condense our reasoning, if all goes well we will win this battle without a single loss life on either side of the conflict and with more support from the common people of the empire, and if all goes wrong, well... we'll know we must retreat and disappear until we gain the means of combating- at the very least- the hand of the king. Because we certainly won't be victories against [villain name here] if we can't defeat those two.

Nas and Arya took a moment to consider Eragon and Saphira's words while I congratulated them, _"Nice job you two, I couldn't have said it better myself."_

Arya was the first to recover and respond. "A sound plan…" she said and Eragon immediately stood a little taller for the split second it took him to remember he couldn't truly take the credit for the plan, Arya herself either didn't notice his reaction or didn't care to point it out to anyone because she continued unabated. "But I suggest we wait until the next messenger from the empire brings the inevitable declaration of war."

Nas gave her a raised eyebrow prompting her to explain, "I do not think anyone truly believes any other message will be sent."

Nas nodded grimly and returned her attention to the pair that told her

"I agree, prepare your speech to the empires army, in the meantime do you know of any ways you could prepare for the battle to come if your offer of a duel isn't meet?"

Eragon stated the same thing he suggested in the books, that being his idea of taking control of the rebel wizards and proceed to kick names and take ass, so Nas when into her tent to prepare for the might-not-be-so-inevitable battle to come wit Arya close behind her.

Eragon was about to tell Arya to wait so he could apologize or how he behaved during the blood oath ceremony and try to *fix* the relationship between him and her until...

_"Nope,"_ I stated while I kept him I'm using his mouth until Arya went back into Nas's tent, the opportunity lost.

_"What?!"_ He exclaimed as I felt a wave of displeasure to me for taking control without permission and Saphira getting tense as well. _"Why?!"_


	5. Attachment Theory and Loss

**Attachment Theory and Loss.**

* * *

_"What?!"_ He exclaimed mentally as he radiated a wave of displeasure from me taking control without permission and Saphira getting tense as well. _"Why?!"_

_"Because at this point, I believe you should stop trying to establish a relationship with her."_

Eragon inhaled and exhaled before responding to me. _"You're saying I should forget about my feelings for her as well?"_

His anger was pretty understandable, I found it irritating to keep hearing that particular message, after all, I got sick of it after the first time I simply read about it... However…

_"Yes, but I think everyone's been giving you the right advice for the wrong reason when it comes to your feelings for Arya."_

That got his and Saphira's attention._ "And what would those reasons be headworm?"_

Wow, Saphira must have been really curious, she even forgot to add any growling to her thoughts when she addressed me.

_"Before I explain myself maybe you should head towards the headquarters of the _(fancy name of rebel magicians here)_, I reckon it's starting to look weird to outsiders with you just standing here."_

He thought about it for a moment before he turned._ "Very well, I'll listen as I walk."_

_"Let's walk and talk," _I said, just as we were in motion towards where the spellcasters resided.

_"So why don't you want me to pursue Arya?"_

_"You mean besides the fact that any relationship you have with me inside your head would technically be a threesome, and me being the greedy bastard that I am the only one of those that I want to be a part of is with two other women with their own bodies?"_

Even as disconnected as I was I could sense Eragon's cheeks morphing into live charcoals and Saphira was doing her absolute best to contain a deep rumbling that was threatening to break out.

Before either of them could respond I continue to explain my reasoning.

_"Besides that reason well… all joking aside some information I stumbled upon back at home suggests that you have some things to work on before you get into a healthy romantic relationship with anybody, let alone her."_

_"What are you talking about?" _Eragon asked with some defensiveness.

_"I think it would be better if I showed you."_ I talked to him before I used my (in story) perfect memory to show him the video called Attachment Theory-How Your Childhood Affects Your Love Style from Charisma on Command.

The video talked about four different types of people's romantic behavior. The extremely simplified version is this.

(1) is the Avoidant. For someone who feels discomfort with deep connection.

(2) is the Anxious. For those who fear the loss of connection.

(3) is the Fearful. For those who are unpredictable and self sabotage the things they want the most due to having the worst of the former two.

(4) is the Secure. For those who trust that they have the fortitude to deal with loss.

After the viewing was done I started my observations. _"So yeah, I showed you that because I have this crazy idea that you Eragon Shadeslayer are an Anxious type."_ I didn't consider the idea crazy seeing but calling it crazy was a good way to diffuse tension. _"Here's where I got this crazy idea,"_ I told him before he could respond._ "As that memory of mine just stated, one of the telltale signs of an anxious type is that they form obsessions before they sufficiently know the person in question. Anakin Skywalker, for example, remained obsessed with Padme for years without seeing her even though they only spent about what… two or three days together? On top of that, they only properly talked with each other during that time like what… two and a half times?"_

(The half time in question is when he thought she was just a handmaiden and asked the queen where she was. Also at this point, I had shown Eragon and Saphira several movies including the Star Wars original and prequel trilogy… but not the new sequel trilogy.)

"_And while I never did see the notebook I'm willing to take Charlie's word for it that Noah decided that it was worth threatening to kill himself to be with Ali after just staring at her even though they had never seen each other in their lives before then."_

"_Now according to Charlie, when this happens it is because the anxious type is projecting an idealized image onto the object of their affection, due to their low self-image tending to blind them to the flaws of others, and so they are willing to change anything just to be close to that person, as Noah demonstrated in the video."_

"_Now you didn't show me much of your relationship with Arya, but before I was forbidden from freely browsing through your memories I saw that you offered to have your memory magically expanded to overcome the age gap between you and her, which granted is pretty tame when compared to the lengths someone else could go to. But you were still willing to artificially change something about yourself to be with her. And there is also the matter of how you developed the desire to be with her in the first place."_

"_What I'm talking about is the fact that when you proposed to her not only did you sound a little… well, desperate, you also only talked about how beautiful she was, even after spending months alongside an entire civilization of people who were able to make themselves just as beautiful or ugly as they damn well pleased, and after you told her she how beautiful she was you when straight into telling her all the lengths you would go to be with her, and I mean STRAIGHT into it. No talking about the experiences you two shared, no talking about why she was special to you, just 'boom' you when right to talking about spending the rest of your life- a life that could very well extend into the millennia mind you- with her… her, a woman you only knew for, what, a few months was it?"_

"_Now be honest with yourself, if you saw that happening between a pair of strangers would you think that was a good amount of time for anyone to build a relationship meant to last for millennia? Maybe if they spent their time together extremely efficiently on getting to know each other and such, but that didn't seem to be the case with you and Arya. I mean, what did she do exactly to warrant your affections?"_

At some point during our walk, Eargon came to a halt and my question was left unanswered, so I continued.

"Also_, as stated earlier the Anxious types tend to fail to see the flaws in others because of their low self-image, which is why I need to ask you to point out Arya's flaws to me. Or if not me then Shapira, because though your memories I've noticed some flaws with her that you don't seem to be taking into account."_

And with those last two questions, he was left completely stunned and unable to answer me and I could tell that he said nothing to Shapira.

And yes, Arya is a flawed character and anyone who thinks otherwise is either a fool who didn't realize that almost all of the talk about her being perfect in the books either came from Eragon. The former being an unreliable narrator due to him being an Anxious type and infatuated with her, or they are even greater fools who followed the first fools in the vain attempt to not look like an idiot because every time I saw accusations of her of being a Mary Sue I'd be like TTS - Necrons Laughing Condescendingly... at least until I realized just how sad the whole thing was… then I'd laugh some more _because_ of how sad it was.

Btw the Obi-Wan reference (who's the greater fool? The fool or the fool who follows him?) was completely intentional. Also if you were planning to argue that other characters and the narrative itself also said Arya was perfect then you are wrong; other characters and the narrative itself said that she was beautiful and if you are having trouble seeing the difference between beauty and perfection then you have much bigger problems then how a character is written.

"_So here's my prediction based on the crazy idea that you're an Anxious type; in the past, you lost someone who would be considered an affectionate caretaker, which gave you the idea that all __Anxious types subconsciously have, that connections are valuable but prone to being lost and so they must be acquired and safeguarded at anything resembling a reasonable cost. (Hey that rhymed!) Therefore __your obsession with Arya began before you knew her at all really, maybe even before she woke up because you somehow saw her as the embodiment of what you had lost coming back, and this has made you completely focused on her, consequences and alternatives be damned."_

"_Or to put it another way… '__It is but a shadow and a thought that you love."_

After a moment of silence, I decided to add another example. _"If you're still not sure about what I'm saying then take the image you made of her during your training, you remember the one that showed her as an idealized version of herself that she broke? If you were attracted to her you wouldn't have made the thing represent her as a perfect being, you would have made it represent who she... actually...was…"_

The realization hit me like a tidal wave.

First Event: Eragon creates the picture idealizing Arya.

First Result: Arya destroys the picture and leaves.

Second Event: Eragon creates an image of her that just shows her as she is near the end.

Second Result: Arya tells him her true name and thinks about getting together with him sometime in the future.

Searching for additional memories...

In Between Event: With Eargon losing to Arya in sword fighting, Dragon-Orb-teacher tells Eargon_ "You should learn to see what you are looking at."_

In Between Result: Eargon takes Dragon-Orb-teacher's further-explained advice and he is able to become her equal in sword fighting and say to her. "I see you." and she smiles.

…

…

...

_Christopher Paolini you genius motherfucker._ I thought in silent awe.

I broke out of my musings when I received a string of memories from Eragon who evidently didn't notice that my mind had wandered, the memories in question were as follows:

Learning that his aunt and uncle were not his parents and that his mother had left him, placing herself forever out of his reach and leaving him secretly wondering if he somehow wasn't good enough for her.

His aunt being overtaken by sickness which left her bedridden for weeks struggling on to life, until it proved to be all for naught when she finally passed away leaving a void that would lead to his uncle moving into the isolated farm that would be his home until he experienced his next loss.

Finding his uncle in the ruins of his home after it had been destroyed by the Ra'zac and going so far as to carry him part-way back to the village with his legs still badly skinned from the first flight with Saphira in order to save him... only to lose him as well after he had gotten his hopes up that he would get better.

Then there was Brom who after receiving mortal wounds from the ambush had managed to tell Eragon about how he'd lost his Saphira and to never let that happen to him until he himself passed away forever.

And then came the first time Eragon saw Arya with his own eyes, and he saw someone who was in clear and present danger of dying… just like everyone else, but unlike everyone else, when he did everything he could to help her…

...she got better.

...she came back.

And the rest was history… until now.

Eragon was still for a moment before he brought his hands up to bury his face in them while Saphira gently placed her snout on his shoulder.

"_Hey hey hey, it's ok,"_ I told him a moment later. I didn't know for sure if he was upset about the implications that he didn't _really _love Arya or if he was reminded how much he lost or both, but it was clear that he needed some emotional support.

After he had some time to recover he asked me what he should do now.

_"If you're talking about yourself and your anxious tendencies then all I can suggest is that you just do what Charlie said; 'cultivate a hobby or skill that has nothing to do with relationships, something that you can do by yourself. Having those kinds of things going on in your life makes it so that you don't base your entire identity and self-worth on other people."_

"_Which you know might be a little difficult with me and Saphira, but you could block her from your mind and as for me… well… I can leave your head for someone else if you really need it."_

A moment's paused and I resumed. _"As for Arya my advice is the same as before; forget the broken goddess and move on."_

Silence reigned for several seconds until Eragon and Saphira asked the following question in unison. _"The broken goddess?"_


End file.
